US Special Forces Kill Head of ISIS Oil Operations

BEIRUT — In a rare ground attack deep into Syria,
U.S. Armycommandos killed a man described as the Islamic
State group's head of oil operations, captured his wife and rescued a woman
whom American officials said was enslaved.

A team of Delta Force commandos slipped across the border
from Iraq
under cover of darkness Saturday aboard Black Hawk helicopters and V-22 Osprey
aircraft, according to a U.S. defense official knowledgeable about details of
the raid. The official was not authorized to discuss the operation publicly and
spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Americans intended to capture a militant identified by
U.S. officials as Abu Sayyaf. When they arrived at his location, a multi-story
building, they met stiff resistance, the U.S. official said, and a firefight
ensued, resulting in bullet-hole damage to the U.S. aircraft.

Abu Sayyaf was killed, along with an estimated dozen ISIS
fighters, U.S. officials said. No American was killed or wounded.

Before the sun had risen, the commandos flew back to Iraq
where Abu Sayyaf's wife, Umm Sayyaf, was being questioned in U.S. custody,
officials said.

Abu Sayyaf was described by one official as the ISIS "emir of oil and
gas," although he also was targeted for his known association with the
group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

U.S. officials said it was likely, given Abu Sayyaf's
position,that he knew about more than just the financial side of the group's
operations.

The U.S. official said his removal probably has temporarily
halted ISIS oil-revenue operations, critical to the group's ability to carry
out military operations in Syria and Iraq and to govern the population centers
it controls.

But U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House
Intelligence Committee, cautioned against exaggerating the long-term gain from
killing Abu Sayyaf.

He said ISIS, like al-Qaida, "has proven adept at
replacing its commanders and we will need to keep up the pressure on its
leadership and financing."

A U.S. Treasury official told Congress in October that ISIS
militants were earning about $1 million a day from black market oil sales
alone, and getting several million dollars a month from wealthy donors,
extortion rackets and other criminal activities, such as robbing banks.
Kidnappings were another large source of cash.

U.S. airstrikes in Syria since September have frequently
targeted ISIS oil-collection facilities in an effort to undermine the group's
finances.

IS controls much of northern and eastern Syria as well as
northern and western Iraq, despite months of U.S. and coalition airstrikes and
efforts by the U.S.-backed Iraqi army to retake territory. ISIS holds most of
the oil fields in Syria and has declared a caliphate governed by a harsh
version of Islamic law.

Also Saturday, activists said ISIS fighters pushed into the
Syrian town of Palmyra, home to famed 2,000-year-old ruins.

The U.S. Army raid occurred one day after the U.S.-led
campaign to roll back ISIS gains in Iraq suffered a significant setback in
Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. ISIS fighters are reported to have
captured a key government building in Ramadi and have established control over
a substantial portion of the city, officials have said.

U.S. House
SpeakerJohn Boehner, in a written statement Saturday praising the
raid into Syria, said he was "gravely concerned" by the IS assault on
Ramadi and that it threatened the stability and sovereignty of Iraq.

ISIS has made major inroads at Iraq's Beiji oil refinery complex in recent
days. Reports vary, but U.S. officials have said ISIS is largely in control of
the refinery, as well as the nearby town of Beiji. It's on the main route from Baghdad to
Mosul, the main ISIS stronghold in northern Iraq.

U.S. Defense SecretaryAsh Carterin Washington
announced the raid, followed soon after by word from the White House.

Bernadette Meehan, spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security
Council, said in a statement that the woman who was freed, a Yazidi,
"appears to have been held as a slave" by Abu Sayyaf and his wife.
She said the U.S. intends to return her to her family.

ISIS militants captured hundreds of members of the Yazidi religious
minority in northern Iraq during their rampage across the country last summer.

A senior Obama administration official said Umm Sayyaf was
being debriefed at an undisclosed location in Iraq to obtain intelligence about
IS operations. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the
operation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The raid was the first known U.S. ground operation targeting
ISIS militants in Syria. A U.S.-led coalition has been striking the extremists
from the air for months, but the only previous time American troops set foot on
the ground in Syria was in an unsuccessful commando mission to recover hostages
last summer.

Syrian state TV earlier reported that Syrian government
forces killed at least 40 IS fighters, including a senior commander in charge
of oil fields, in an attack Saturday on the Omar field — where the U.S. raid
was said to have taken place. The Syrian report, which appeared as an urgent
news bar on state TV, was not repeated by the state news agency. State TV
didn't repeat the urgent news or elaborate on it.

U.S. officials said they had no knowledge of a Syrian raid
and that the U.S. did not coordinate its operation with the Syrian government.
Meehan said the Syrian government was not informed in advance of the raid. The
U.S. has said it is not cooperating with President Bashar Assad's government in
the battle against ISIS.

"We have warned the Assad regime not to interfere with our ongoing efforts
against ISIL inside of Syria," Meehan said, using another acronym for ISIS.
"As we have said before, the Assad regime is not and cannot be a partner
in the fight against ISIL. In fact, the brutal actions of the regime have aided
and abetted the rise of ISIL and other extremists in Syria."

An NSC statement said President Barack Obamaauthorized the raid upon the "unanimous
recommendation" of his national security team.

The administration clearly is concerned by the resilience of
ISIS even as officials publicly express confidence that the extremists cannot
sustain their territorial gains and ultimately will be defeated.

Saturday's raid came as ISIS fighters have advanced in
central and northeastern Syria. Activists said IS fighters pushed into Palmyra,
home to famed 2,000-year-old ruins, after seizing an oil field and taking control
of the water company on the outskirts.

ISIS said fighters took full control of Saker Island in the
Euphrates River near Deir el-Zour, a provincial capital in eastern Syria split
between IS and government forces.

U.S. Defense

Chuck
Hagel was the secretary at the U.S.
Department of Defense for the Barack
Obama administration, and the chairman for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

Note: Togo D. West Jr. is
a director at the Atlantic Council of
the United States (think tank), was the secretary for the U.S. Army, the secretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and
a general counsel for the U.S.
Department ofDefense.

Patricia
Shinseki is an advisory board member for Joining Forces, and married to Eric
K. Shinseki.

Eric
K. Shinseki is married to Patricia
Shinseki, was a U.S. Army general,
the secretary at the U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs for the Barack
Obama administration, and a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

Stanley
Ebner is a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States (think tank), and a member of the Burning Tree Club.

John
A. Boehner is a member of the Burning
Tree Club, and the speaker for the U.S.
House of Representatives.

W. DeVier Pierson
is a member of the Burning Tree Club,
and a director at the Atlantic Council
of the United States (think tank).

John
W. Warner is a member of the Burning
Tree Club, and an honorary director for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

Jessica Tuchman Mathews was the president of
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director
at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), an honorary trustee
at the Brookings Institution (think tank), is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank),
a member of the Bretton Woods Committee,
and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Ed Griffin’s interview with
Norman Dodd in 1982

(The investigation into the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population
control by involving the United
States in war)

Margaret A.
Hamburg is David A. Hamburg’s
daughter, the VP for the Nuclear Threat
Initiative (think tank), and a member of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age.

Ashton B. Carter
is a member of the Markle Task Force on
National Security in the Information Age, the secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration, was the defense
acquisitions czar for the Barack Obama
administration, a member of the Bretton
Woods Committee, and a co-director for the Preventive Defense Project.

William
J. Perry was the secretary for the U.S.
Department of Defense, a member of the Iraq
Study Group, is a co-director for the Preventive
Defense Project, a director at the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), and an honorary director at the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank).

James A. Baker III
was a co-chair for the Iraq Study Group,
is a member of the Bretton Woods
Committee, and an honorary director for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

Chuck
Hagel was the chairman for the Atlantic
Council of the United States (think tank), and the secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration.

Madeleine K.
Albright is an honorary director for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), a member of the
Bretton Woods Committee, a friend of
Susan E. Rice, and was a member of
the National Security Council.

Susan
E. Rice is a friend of Madeleine K.
Albright, the White House national security adviser for the Barack Obama administration, was a
director at the Atlantic Council of the
United States (think tank), a special assistant to the president for the National Security Council, and a senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution (think
tank).

Lee
H. Hamilton is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, and was a co-chair
for the Iraq Study Group.

James A. Baker III
was a co-chair for the Iraq Study Group,
is a member of the Bretton Woods
Committee, and an honorary director for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).

William
J. Perry was a member of the Iraq
Study Group, the secretary for the U.S.
Department of Defense, is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), an honorary director at the
Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank), and a co-director for the Preventive Defense Project.

Ashton B. Carter
was a co-director for the Preventive
Defense Project, the defense acquisitions czar for the Barack Obama administration, a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, is a member of the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, and the
secretary at the U.S. Department of
Defense for the Barack Obama
administration.

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